Presentation
The study of cultural transfer and transmission is an expanding research line within the broader context of literary history and cultural studies. The edited volume The Dynamics and Contexts of Cultural Transfers has its origin in the research network U4 between the universities of Ghent, Groningen, Göttingen and Uppsala (contributors from Groningen will attend the seminar). The volume examines the nature and consequences of flows and transfers – ways in which cultural, social and political/ideological elements cross national and cultural boundaries, how they are changed and how they affect the contexts in which they arrive. Processes of translation and adaptation play an important role, as do the roles performed by different actors – governmental, academic, and artistic. The articles show that cultural transfer in the western world took place in all times, but that contexts, spaces, material and the way cultural transmitters operated change over time. The importance of gender, ethnicity, migration, and periphery/minority are topics that enable new perspectives. The study of cultural transfer highlights the question of what is national and what is world literature as well as scrutinizes how cultural transfer intertwines ideas on culture and literature.